This application relates generally to communication systems, and, more particularly, to wireless communication systems.
Wireless communication systems typically include a network of base stations that provide wireless connectivity to user equipment. User equipment may include devices such as cellular phones, smart phones, tablets, ultrabooks, laptops, wireless-enabled desktop computers, and the like. User equipment may also include machine type communication (MTC) devices. An MTC device is defined by the 3GPP TS 22.368 as user equipment equipped for Machine Type Communication. An MTC device can be one of the types of devices listed above (e.g., a smart phone) with an MTC application installed on it or the MTC device can be a device that is specific for an MTC purpose and communicates wirelessly to an MTC server, such as a water meter or health monitoring device. The MTC device communicates through a public land mobile network (PLMN) with MTC server(s) and/or other MTC device(s). Machine type communication is a form of data communication that involves one or more entities that do not necessarily need human interaction. A service optimised for machine type communications differs from a service optimised for human-to-human communications. For example, machine type communications differs from current mobile network communication services because machine type communication may involve different market scenarios, data communications, lower costs and effort, a potentially very large number of communicating terminals, and to a large extent, relatively little traffic per terminal.